Day one will be super easy and short (b/c no pictures). The day started with me going in to work for a half day b/c we were short staffed (another doctor was on vacation). It turned out to be crazy slow, and I think I only ended up seeing a total of 6 patients for the half day. Probably didn't need to go in after all, but you know if I hadn't it would have been busy! When I got home, we finished last minute packing and loaded the van. My new van was about to seem not so new anymore after it's first trip to the island. Our first stop was at my mom's house where we were dropping off the big kids (Nick and Alexis). They were riding in my parent's car. I was a little offended they wanted to ride with them over us considering I was sure they (my parents) would fight the entire way...but they also cater to kids, and Alexis knew my mom would let them eat anything in her new van, and I was still on a no eating in my new van kick. Really we needed them to ride with my parents b/c we did not really have enough room for all of us plus a weeks worth of luggage/food. It worked out great.
We were crazy slow getting our official drive started. CRAZY slow. We realized having only 2 headsets for the DVD player was not going to work well. Up until that point when kids watched a movie we just heard the movie too, but for this trip Clark and I wanted to read and not listen to all the movies. Our van only came with 2 wireless headsets, and you had to get them from the Toyota dealership. So hold up number one was us trying to call around to dealerships to find one that had some in stock to buy. We stopped at the Anderson Toyota dealership and bought another pair. BEST purchase of trip. Well worth the delay. We had happy quiet kids the entire way there. Our second delay was when I went to open a book (from the several I had purchased on amazon the night before) on my iPad and realized that they didn't download. I was confused but Clark said something about them being on the cloud and I never checked to make sure they were on my iPad. Whatever..no clue what that meant, but I was panicked b/c I needed those books. So we had to find a place with free Wi-Fi so I could get them downloaded. By this point we were 2 hours behind schedule. That seemed to be a common theme for our entire driving experience of this trip.
The rest of our day 1 went smoothly but slow. We needed to get to a hotel around Toronto (specifically in Vaughn) to stop for the night. During the drive the kids were awesome. They watched movies and played iPods/DS. I had to quickly relax on my no eating in van rule (which has started again since coming home) b/c every time we stopped the kids wanted a snack, and who was I to deprive them of that since it used to be one of my favorite parts of a long car trip. Clark and I decided to read Outliers as our first book. I basically picked books based on the recommendations I got on facebook and from friends. I read out loud while we were driving. This serves two purposes. First I am the world's worst passenger....EVER. I admit it. I FREAK out in the car. I am not sure what ever happened in my life to make me this way, but it takes a patient person to tolerate this. I would not say Clark tolerates this well bc he gets really mad and we often fight in the car, but he does the best anyone could. So the out loud reading not only entertains us both, but more importantly it keeps my eyes off the road and focused on something else. Outliers was a great choice. We both really enjoyed it... thanks Everett for the suggestion.
We only had one really long stop for dinner. We stopped at a Friday's. Kids were great. Here are my only pictures from our driving day.
Ryan with Clark
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We had no problems crossing the border into Canada. My mom had prepared me for tons of questions and a car search, etc (last time I flew). Nothing like that happened. We gave the person our passports. Rolled down the van window in back and that was that....he gave them back a few seconds later after asking if we had any guns...which we didn't.
Clark drove most of the way (well I drove the first hour) b/c even though I am a horrible passenger, I also hate to drive. A lot of the driving though was what I would call easy driving. Not much traffic and basically staying on only a few roads most of the way. We take 69N to 401 to 11 to island. I might be missing something in there but that is the basic trip. Still Clark for some reason thought it would be a good ideal to have me drive the last couple of hours. Ummmm....stupid, stupid, stupid! He should have known better. When were were going thru Toronto things were getting crazy. The roads had 6 or more lanes, and I was freaking out. I know that is normal for many people (and I got sick of hearing how in California where Clark is from..this was nothing...it was not nothing to me) but when that starts happening here in Indiana, I am moving to the country. I was shaking and nervous. At one point when I was in the wrong lane and he wanted me to change at the last second, I screamed at the top of my lungs ("ahhhhh we are going to die") b/c I was blocked in and couldn't get over and had to take the wrong exit. I knew my driving was over. I pulled over the first chance I could, and we switched. Writing that doesn't really do my scream justice. The kids are still talking about it, and they were in a dead sleep b/c it was after midnight at this point. Again...Clark should have known better. We had just spent the last several hours on two lane roads with no chance of getting lost. That is when I should have been behind the wheel. Oh well, we didn't die, and I was very happy and tired when we got to the hotel at around 1am. My parents and the big kids were already there and fast asleep. My sister and her family came in right behind us.
That was day one! Long day in the car but kids were amazing. I mean amazing. Not one issue! No meltdowns, no fights, no complaining...awesome!
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